Chapter 150: Apartment
The darkness settles.
I quickly turn my gaze.
-Ting!
A sound like a coin bouncing is heard.
I look around.
At least, there's nothing visible.
"Ms. A-rin."
I call out for Song A-rin and scan the darkness.
As if she had teleported away, she was gone.
Did she move to another dimension?
Frantically, I pull out my smartphone to check the time and signal, and shine the light around me.
The time and signal are normal.
The surroundings were also the same room I was in with Song A-rin just moments ago.
"..."
Only Song A-rin was missing.
Let me make a call first.
I call the most reliable person first.
Before the ringtone even starts, the call connects and a familiar voice is heard.
"Is something wrong, Jae-heon?"
"Ms. Daon."
"Where should I go?"
Yu Daon's voice comes through the speaker.
"To Ms. A-rin's apartment."
"Should I bring Ms. Chae-yeon?"
"As fast as you can, please."
"Please wait a moment."
Click. The call ends.
I've called for backup, so I just need to hold on for a little while.
"Ms. A-rin."
I call Song A-rin's name, but no answer comes.
"..."
In the end, there was only one way to check.
Carefully, I raise my smartphone and use its light to illuminate the area ahead. A single painting reflects the light and shines.
Once again, a semi-transparent window floats before my eyes.
[Name: Army-Study-One-System]
[Age: Created one day ago]
[Specialty: Climax/Intensification]
[Talent: X]
[Background: If you believe your own life has melted away, then perhaps life itself is an art form.]
[Weakness: Erase the light.]
Created one day ago.
Meaning, this painting was created not long ago.
In fact, even when I first visited Song A-rin's apartment, this painting was just a painting.
I pull out my gun from my waistband and slowly approach the painting.
"..."
I examine the painting slowly.
A dark Song A-rin and shining people.
Everyone except for one person was looking at Song A-rin.
First, I examine Song A-rin.
She is looking straight ahead with a dark expression.
Unlike the painting I saw before, there was a strangely vivid feeling about it.
If the other background and people felt like a painting, this felt like a photograph.
A foreboding premonition causes my expression to frown automatically.
I turn my gaze to look at the other people in the painting.
People I don't know.
An elderly man with black hair, men and women... anyway, they were all people I was seeing for the first time.
While intently examining the painting, I spot familiar faces.
Clearly, just before, when I looked, the shining people were strangers to me.
Jang Chae-yeon, standing expressionlessly near Song A-rin, watching her.
Yu Daon, smiling next to her.
And,
"..."
I was the only one with my back turned to her.
Then, shouldn't I also be darkened? But that wasn't the case.
Instead, I felt like I was drawn shining even more brightly than the others.
Because of that, her darkness seemed even more accentuated.
People like a painting, and conversely, her who was like a photograph.
Perhaps?
I slowly reach my hand out towards the painting.
At the same time, the painting ripples and the colors of the world change momentarily.
I quickly pull my hand back, and the world and the painting return to normal as if nothing happened.
"..."
Should I reach out?
While I'm pondering.
-Chalk!
The sound of a door opening and busy footsteps head this way.
"Jae-heon!"
"You really came quickly."
Yu Daon was looking at me, panting for breath.
"Ms. Chae-yeon is..."
"She's on her way now... she said it might take some time."
"Did you try turning on the lights?"
Yu Daon shook her head.
"I saw on the way here that the main circuit breaker was off. Should I turn it on and come back?"
"Wait a moment."
I reach out to stop Yu Daon and fall into thought.
Weakness: Erase the light.
Does that mean the weakness is revealed when the light is erased?
Then shouldn't the weakness be revealed right now?
What happens if we turn on the lights instead?
"...Shall we try turning on the lights?"
"Please do."
Let's try turning on the lights first.
Yu Daon nods and moves her steps.
With a click, the lights come on, and I look around again.
Still no trace of Song A-rin.
"Ms. Daon, can you see anyth..."
I stick my head out the door to call Yu Daon, and
Shining people appear before my eyes.
I can't make out their faces, but they give off a similar feeling to the people inside the painting earlier.
I hurriedly turn my gaze to look at Yu Daon, and
-Crunch!
The sight of a shining person grabbing Yu Daon's head and popping it enters my vision.
Blood splatters on the wall.
At the same time, the shining person reaches out towards me.
-Click!
Yu Daon, now headless, staggers, reaches out a hand, and turns off the light again.
Simultaneously, the light disappears, darkness returns, and as if nothing had happened, the shining person who was reaching for me is gone.
"Wow..."
And, Yu Daon, whose head had somehow returned, was pressing the switch and letting out a sigh of relief.
"My eyes couldn't see, so I reached out roughly by feel, but I managed to turn it off! That was close!"
"...Thank you."
"Eek, the blood on the wall... Ms. A-rin will be angry if she finds out, right?"
Yu Daon mutters while looking at the wall, acting as if her own head popping was nothing.
"...Let's keep that to ourselves for now. In here, first."
I bring Yu Daon into the room.
"...Wow, what kind of place is this?"
"It's a room Ms. A-rin kept hidden."
"Ah-ha..."
Uttering an exclamation, Yu Daon starts fiddling with the books around her and reading the titles.
"It's Okay Not to Be Loved... How to Detach Your Heart from Others..."
After perusing the book titles, she mutters.
"So that's how it was."
Yu Daon smiles faintly.
Her smiling face had an expression as if she had realized something, looking refreshed.
"Huh?"
"No. It's nothing."
She mutters something, puts the book down, comes to my side, and examines the painting.
"Uh, isn't this that painting from before? The one we saw at the art museum."
"That's right."
"Don't tell me you brought it here?"
"No. I think it's a copy."
"..."
Yu Daon narrows her eyes, looks at the painting, then looks at me.
"I see! So what should we do?"
"...Earlier, when I touched this painting, things got a bit strange."
"Yeah."
"So I'm thinking of trying to enter this painting."
"I'm fine with that!"
Before I could even finish speaking, Yu Daon nodded and answered.
"Are you sure?"
"Of course."
She looks at me as if asking why I'm even asking such an obvious question.
"If I weren't okay with it, I wouldn't have come all the way here."
"...Then shall we go in together for now? If something happens, Ms. Chae-yeon can handle things outside."
Yu Daon nods.
"...Shall we go then?"
I slowly reach my hand towards the painting, and the colors of the world begin to change again.
As if darkness is encroaching upon the room, the darkness expands,
and the moment my fingertip touches the painting, the darkness covers the world and the background changes.
"...Wow."
Yu Daon mutters and stands next to me.
Perhaps because she's not in a suit. There's blood on her clothes, giving off a slight metallic smell.
"This doesn't seem to be the art museum..."
What lies before us is.
"An apartment?"
It was an apartment.
A completely ordinary-looking apartment you could find anywhere.
I turn to look behind me.
Behind me is the single painting of Army-Study-One-System that I had touched.
As I bring my hand close to the painting, the darkness begins to recede.
"It seems this painting serves as the entrance and exit."
"Then if need be, we can escape through this painting."
Yu Daon nods and moves her steps.
"If something happens, abandon me and run."
"How could I do that?"
"Anyway, even if I want to die, I can't, so I'll hold out just fine."
"..."
Yu Daon mutters calmly and pushes the glass door.
The interior of the first floor had the exact same structure as a typical apartment.
There was an elevator, stairs, and a layout with households lined up on both sides.
"Do you think Ms. A-rin is here?"
"We should pray she isn't somewhere else."
If she went somewhere else, we might not be able to find her.
-Chwararak!
The moment I finish speaking, the manual unfolds.
[Manual for Office Workers]
[Myeongil Apartment Manual]
[0. Myeongil Apartment was closed by the Management Bureau 15 years ago due to a certain anomalous phenomenon.]
[0-1. This is the doing of the [CENSORED] under the river, and the first survivor is currently employed within the Management Bureau.]
"..."
"...It was a place like this?"
Yu Daon, who was reading the manual next to me, mutters and looks at me.
"Then the first survivor..."
"Must be Ms. A-rin."
I continued my train of thought with a complicated mind.
Why is a monster living under a river connected to this place called 'Myeongil Apartment'?
Unless it's not a monster?
Various doubts flashed through my mind simultaneously, but now is not the time for that.
Next item.
[1. Take the elevator. Never take the stairs.]
[2. After entering the elevator, you will see buttons for floors 1 through 6. If you see a button for the 7th floor, you must ignore the intense urge to press it.]
[3. The most common exit is the children's room in Unit 402.]
Yu Daon, who was reading the manual next to me, presses the elevator button.
Ding! With a cheerful sound, the heavy door opens.
"Jae-heon, the elevator is ope..."
"Ah, yes."
At Yu Daon's words, I lift my head, and
-Push!
Blood splatters directly onto my face.
Yu Daon's right arm is torn off.
Inside the elevator, something black and sticky was clinging thickly, and
-Ding!
Yu Daon frantically presses the elevator button with her left arm, and it closes again.
-Whoosh!
Her right arm returns to her as if rewinding time.
"...Are you sure taking the elevator is the right way?"
Yu Daon blinks and looks at me, then hands me a handkerchief.
I wipe the blood off my face with the handkerchief and hurriedly open the manual.
[0-1. We inform this in advance to Management Bureau employees who have arrived here.]
[0-2. This place has not been updated since the last manual entry investigation by the Response Team 10 years ago.]
[0-3. It is unknown how the anomalous phenomena have changed over a long period of time, so please be cautious when attempting to escape.]
"They should have told us this beforehand."
"Huh?"
"It's nothing."
I sigh and look at the next item.
[4. If you cannot use the elevator for some reason, use the stairs. However, never let go of the stair rail.]
"Let's go."
I grab the stair rail and move my steps.
Where on earth is Song A-rin?
Holding the rail, I climb the stairs and look out the window.
In the darkness, only a single painting was shining brightly.